Voluntary measures have failed: Google and others will have to be forced to block scams
“It is frankly absurd that the Financial Conduct Authority is paying hundreds of thousands of pounds to Google to warn consumers against investment advertisements from which Google is already receiving millions in revenue,” said Charles Randell, the chair of the chief financial regulator, last year.
Absolutely right – the position is genuinely ludicrous. It would clearly be better to prevent financial scammers’ poisonous promotions from appearing at all. As Randell put it, there should be a legal framework “to stop social media platforms and search engines from promoting unsuitable investments, including scams, to ordinary retail consumers”.
